The restaurants and bars in these areas have said that when the beaches are red-flagged because of spills of inadequately treated wastewater, they lose up to 70% of their normal takings. On behalf of the restaurants, Juan Manuel Parra reiterated this point at the town hall meeting.
He added that in the past couple of quarters there has been a general decrease in revenue of up to 40%, suggesting that this has been because of the negative image of the beaches. "If this situation continues, it will affect the family economy in the area. Some businesses may have to close."
A demand was made for compensation to be paid by the town hall, and the restaurant owners were backed up by criticisms of the administration by Joan Forteza of the federation of residents associations and by Miquel Obrador of a different residents group.
The political arguments about the spills continued during the meeting, with much the same points being made as they have been for several weeks. The Partido Popular again accused the administration of not having acted on projects that were in place for improvements to the water-treatment plant and channelling before the 2015 election. Neus Truyol, councillor for ecology and president of the Emaya municipal services agency, responded by saying that when the PP were in power, people had been swimming at beaches where there had been spills.
